The present invention relates to so-called sleeper pajamas, and more particularly to sleeper pajamas for a young child or toddler, which include a garment of relatively soft and porous fleece-like cloth fabric for covering the child's body, arms and legs, and protective boot members of non-porous and wear-resistant material connected to the leg portions of the garment so as to space such leg portions sufficiently above the soles of the boot members to avoid contact of the garment with a surface on which the child may walk or run.
Sleeper pajamas for a young child or toddler are known, and generally comprise a garment of relatively soft and porous fleece-like cloth fabric, such as washable polyester textile material, which offers heat insulation, physical protection, as well as "breathability", i.e. the ability to exchange air and moisture through the fabric, for the health and comfort of the child. The known sleeper pajamas typically include a body portion provided with a pair of arm portions and a pair of leg portions, so as to provide a sleeping and wearing enclosure for covering the child's body, arms and legs in loosely fitting manner.
The lower or distal ends of the loosely fitting leg portions of these known sleeper pajamas are usually provided with a flat sole of wear-resistant material, such as washable non-porous, pliable plastic sheeting material, and often a toe cap portion of the same wear-resistant material, overlying the toe portion of the sole and sewn thereto, to provide minimal support and protection for the toe area of the garment, with the remainder of the sole, extending from just behind the toe area, through the intermediate arch area, to the heel area thereof, being sewn directly to the leg portion of the soft cloth fabric of the garment.
A distinct feature of these so-called sleeper pajamas is that they contain flat soles of wear-resistant material, provided to enable the toddler to wear them, not only for sleeping per se, but also as "lounging pajamas" upon arising in the morning or after a nap, for walking or running around on the wear-resistant soles, instead of heaving to be changed first into some other attire.
However, a major problem with such known type sleeper pajamas is that in use, as when the toddler is out of bed and walking or running about, the immediate adjency of the loosely fitting leg portion of the soft garment to the flat sole is such that, since no side support is present, often the sole is displaced axially or distally, or laterally or sidewise, of the child's foot, causing the coextensive area of the leg portion of the garment to touch the surface on which the child is walking or running. Pointedly, this touching usually involves the curling or gather of the portion of the cloth fabric of the garment, immediately adjacent the margin of the sole, into a fold that finds its way under the sole.
This does not merely cause undue soiling of the bottom area of the garment material, but more important it also causes extensive and accelerated wear of the soft and porous fleece-like cloth fabric itself.
In this regard, it will be realized that the dynamic force generated by a walking or running small child is such that the touching portion of the garment fabric, especially a fold of the garment fabric displaced beneath the sole of the pajamas, will experience great squeezing pressure between the child's foot, or that sole, and the ground or other surface on which the child is walking or running, since the impulse, based on the child's dynamic weight as it is transmitted to the ground or other surface during walking or running, is concentrated in the very small area defined directly by the active foot of the child then contating the ground or such other surface, or indirectly by sole of the pajamas on which that active foot of the child is supported.
This is to be distinguished from the case where the infant merely crawls along the ground, since in crawling the child's weight is distributed among the extremities. Thus, at any given time the local impulse, for instance at a toe area or knee area touching the ground, will be only a fraction of the full impulse of an erect child transmitted to the ground via the given active foot.
While the soiling of the garment consequent such touching is readily corrected by suitable laundering of the sleeper pajamas, in that they are typically made of "machine-washable" material of the above noted type, e.g. washable polyester textile fabric material for the garment, and washable pliable plastic sheeting material for the sole and toe cap portion, whereupon they may be conveniently cleansed in the normal household or commercial washing machine, the resultant extensive and accelerated wear of such cloth fabric in the region of the sole of the sleeper pajamas cannot be corrected in this simple manner.
Instead, absent discarding the sleeper pajamas altogether, the worn portion of the garment must be repaired, such as by trimming away the worn section and rejoining the trimmed edges by stitching or the like, or by applying a sewn-on patch or the like to the worn area. In any case, the contemplated repairing necessarily alters the appearance and basic structure of the garment leg portion and of its relationship to the sole and toe cap portion.
The resulting appearance is often unsightly due to such trimming and sewing, patching, or like repair, but more significant the altered structure may be such that the composite, typically "brunched" or "bulged" rejoinder seam, or overlaid patch panel, containing fabric area is thicker and stiffer than the remainder of the fabric, as well as uneven, causing the garment areas and the sole and toe cap portion areas immediately surrounding the infant's foot to be locally changed in shape and/or size. This leads to discomfort of the infant during walking and running, analogous to that of an adult wearing shoes of the wrong size or wearing a shoe containing even a minute size pebble.
Moreover, since the underlying cause of the extensive and accelerated wear of the cloth fabric is not avoided by such repair measures, it is bound to recur, compounding the difficulties.
It would be desirable to provide sleeper pajamas of the above type for a young child, permitting relatively carefree walking or running of the child without fear of undue wear and other detriment to the soft and porous fleece-like material, and also permitting unhindered insertion of the foot into the portion of the pajamas in the vicinity of the sole and unhindered air circulation in the leg and foot enclosing portions thereof, while providing protection for the foot as well as for the garment leg portion adjacent thereto.